What is personal branding?

Q&A: What is personal branding & why does it matter?

From the clothes we wear and the way we style our hair, to the way we sit, stand and speak, we all have our own personal brand.

However, it’s not something we’re all aware of (not unless you’ve just started reading this post…)

In this Q&A article, we lift the lid on personal branding – what it is, why it matters and how to get the ball rolling with creating a personal brand for yourself or your company.

Q. What is personal branding?

As we’ve just mentioned up above, it’s you. To be more specific, it’s the identity you create for yourself or your business. In fact, we like to think Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, nailed the description in his infamous quote: ‘Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.’

Q. Why is personal branding important?

Whether you’re a freelancer, business owner or employee; whatever your situation, your personal brand can potentially help single-handedly shape your career path.

Over time, building a personal brand builds trust and encourages people to work with you. But personal branding isn’t something that happens overnight. It takes time to develop and refine.

From a freelancer/business owner perspective:

Going back to Jeff Bezos’ quote, what do you want prospective and existing customers to say about you when you leave the room? You want them to value you and your offering, enough to choose you over your competitors for many years to come, right? We thought so.

From an employee perspective:

You may think personal branding doesn’t matter so much to you because you’re not responsible for leading the organisation you work for. But here’s the thing, all employees have a role to play in delivering the overall company brand. What’s more, it can make you instantly feel more included and happier at work. It can also help you get to grips with the wider workings of the company too.

Q. How do you create a personal brand?

There’s a lot you can do (far more than we can possibly squeeze into this article). So, to help you out, we’ve done some research and created a shortlist of techniques you can implement right away:

Tip #1: Maintain a consistent online presence

If people haven’t met you, and the only thing they’ve got to go on is your online ID, it’s crucial your entire online universe adds up. Make sure your story is consistent across all of your online touchpoints, be it Instagram, LinkedIn or elsewhere, and (if you’re an employee) bear in mind that your personal brand may also be picked up by prospective employers. Does it conflict with your work brand?

Tip #2: Say the same thing

Posting regularly will help reinforce your personal brand. Granted, it may not happen right away, but if you keep plugging away at it, you will gain traction and people will instantly associate you with your story and get more of a feel for your personality and values.

Tip #3: Stand out from the crowd

While it’s important you say the same thing for consistency’s sake, you shouldn’t be saying the same thing as everybody else. (Well, you can, but you will be at risk of blending into all the rest of the ‘noise’ people are subjected to from all sorts of different channels). If you can, craft a brand that’s distinctive – it’ll make it easier for people to identify and remember you over everybody else.

Tip #4: Define your personal branding goals

Creating a personal brand takes time and honesty. Some questions you may want to ask yourself, include - Why do you want a personal brand? Do you want to climb the career ladder? Build a freelance career? Get customers to keep coming back to you?

Whatever your reasons, list the goals you want to achieve by having a clearly defined personal brand.

Tip #5: Review your LinkedIn profile

With more than 810million members, LinkedIn is a social media platform force to be reckoned with. It’s also widely recognised as being the place for business professionals – six people are hired via the site every minute and 49million people use it to search for jobs on a weekly basis.

What does your LinkedIn profile or company page currently say about you or your organisation? If you are on it, you can guarantee potential customers and employers will look at your LinkedIn details to determine if they want to work with or employ you. Even the smallest of things, such as making sure your profile is up-to-date and having a professional photo or company logo can make a positive impression.

Tip #6: Tell people about yourself/your company

You don’t have to be a writer to do this, you just need to pay a bit closer attention to what you’re telling people about you. For instance, what does your About section on LinkedIn say? Or your bio on Instagram? Don’t just insert your name, job title or company name, use these sections to communicate your offering.

Don’t forget, you can also use these sections to help you get found by incorporating SEO keywords and phrases, like in this LinkedIn profile example:

‘Freelance social media manager with 10+ years’ experience | Helping businesses get results | Ask me about social media marketing | myemail@email.com

Talks about #content, #socialmedia and #contentmarketing’

Tip #7: Develop a personal branding kit

Like every memorable brand that’s out there, such as your Nikes, your Coca-Colas and your Apples of the world, develop a brand kit. Start by thinking about:

• The colours and theme and how you want your brand to feel
• How these areas align with your values, personality, interests, industry and niche
• How you want your personal brand to sound (i.e. key messaging and tone of voice)

Having a brand kit to refer to will help make sure you maintain that all-important consistent online presence, which we mentioned in Tip #1.

So, there you have it, a whistlestop introduction to the world of personal branding. We hope you’ve found it useful and feel inspired enough to go away and start implementing some of the thought processes and tips right away.

If you’re a freelancer, stay where you are. Now that you’re here, we think you’ll also find this article useful, ’10 essential tools for freelancers.’

Got any questions or need help with finding your next job or new recruit? Give us a call on 01789 700021 or complete this short online form.